Former Gor Mahia coach McKinstry worried of Stars’ threat
By Dennis Mabuka, March 18, 2025Gambia national team coach Jonathan McKinstry believes that the recent appointment of South African legend Benni McCarthy to lead Kenya’s Harambee Stars will make the team a threat in the attacking area.
Kenya and Gambia’s Scorpions are set to face off in a Group F World Cup qualifying fixture at Alassane Ouattara Ebimpe Olympic Stadium, IvoryCoast, on Thursday. This will be Datch Day five for both nations as the qualification campaign for the global tournament set to take place from June 11th to July 19th, 2026, continues to gather momentum.
The 47-year-old McCarthy has already started work since signing a contract that will last until the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament, which Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania will co-host.
His first assignment will be the game against Gambia and according to McKinstry, who won two Kenyan Premier League titles with record champions Gor Mahia before stepping down to take charge of the vacant role at Gambia, the arrival of the former AmaZulu and Cape Town City coach in South Africa to handle the East African nation, has totally changed the mentality he had for the Kenyan team.
The Northern Irish tactician thinks that under the previous coach, Engin Firat, Kenya was more of a defensive-minded team that only wanted to win matches through corners and set-pieces. But with the arrival of McCarthy, he sees an attacking mindset of football from the Kenyan side when the two sides face off in the Group F battle.
“We have a Kenya game coming up, and Kenya is an interesting one because Kenya for the last five years, they have drawn a lot of football matches, I think in their last 20 games, they have drawn 10 of them, they have lost six of the last 20 competitive but a lot of draws,” McKinstry told Flashscore.
“If you had asked me six months ago, I would say we were expecting a Kenyan team, who will settle on a low block, defend and try to win off a corner or set-pieces, that is what the former coach’s strategy was, he didn’t really let the team come out and play.
“They were a very defensive-minded team, and you could even call them previously a counter-attacking team, they very much wanted to get a goal off a corner or free-kick.
“But it is a new coach, it is a new era in Kenyan football, Benni (McCarthy) has taken over recently and, historically, Benni’s teams, if you look at his team’s in South Africa whether it was AmaZulu, whether it was Cape Town City, his teams have historically wanted to press more, wanted to be more attacking, he was an incredible footballer himself.” McKinstry continued:
“Most recently, he was a striker’s coach at Manchester United, so he has a very attacking forward-thinking mentality in the game, but he only has two or three days of his new players, so again how much of that can be impacted in a short period.“But equally, when I came here a year ago, the first camp we saw attacking football very quickly and if you approach the camp right, you can make that switch very quickly.”
Despite having coached in Kenya, McKinstry remained cautious that though he knows and understands most of the players in the Harambee Stars squad, that could not play to his advantage when the two sides face off because he does not know the game plan his opponent McCarthy will deploy.
“There is a little bit of the unknown going on in the Kenyan game, but ultimately, I think no one knows Kenyan players more than I do from the last few years, but equally just knowing players doesn’t mean I know what the game plan is going to be,” explained McKinstry.
“We have to be ready to go and take them on; we have to be at our very best,t and if we are, I am confident we can achieve the results we want.”The Scorpions are currently sitting fifth in the six-team group with three points from four matches. Ivory Coast is leading the pile with 10 points, Gabon is second with nine points, Burundi is third with seven points, Kenya is fourth with five points while Seychelles is rooted bottom with zero points.